perfume

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Coeur de Parfum

Gilded micro-bottle with red necktie in a velvet heart-shaped ring box, in front of a vintage mirror to show off the rose on the lid.

(Happy Valentine’s Day to all those who participate. Love is cool, yeah?)

I absolutely bought this vintage beauty for the box, but the extrait inside is a walk through Borsari 1870’s magnificent flower garden.

Starts with jasmine, then moves to rose, next to lily-of-the-valley, then freesia, then violets, then narcissus, then, then, then–but each is separate and distinct, like a line of different soliflores–until we finally rest on a sandalwood bench.

All the flowers are are lovely–that’s Borsari’s thing, precise distinguishable florals–but what makes this so interesting is the timing of them all. Each bloom moves on to the next with no blurred edges, garden plots kept neatly bordered on a path.
The progression is kind of a technical masterpiece–I can’t imagine the expertise that must have taken to orchestrate.

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A heart song. Sort of.

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Angel Iced Star

Tweedle-dick bluepoint cat sticking his nose into my punny shot of a sample spray vial on an ice cube.

Angel Iced Star is the best Piña Colada ever:

Blend until smooth-
4 parts pineapple juice
2 parts ice
1 part Coco Lopez cream of coconut
2 parts Malibu Coconut Rum
Top with vanilla flavored whipped cream and a dash of nutmeg.

I could drink these all day long–but I wouldn’t want to smell like I bathed in them.

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I remember ’70’s summers and all the parents on the block getting stoned and making the kids virgin coladas, and telling us to go out and play and not come home until dusk–

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Lanvin Me

Mini clear crystal bottle with gold graffiti letters and black cap, with blueberries.

This is an amazing gem of a scent!

Lanvin Me seems to have simple ingredients, but the blueberries juxtaposed with licorice is almost dissonant, and the sandalwood–which makes an evocative smudge of smoke–is surprisingly alluring. The bit of tuberose sweetening and roses keep it pretty, but they’re unanchored and a little wistful–
And somehow, it absolutely works.

There’s an unexpected cleverness that elevates it out of fashion/pop-star fruity-floral territory and makes it unique–a multifaceted aspect that includes all four seasons: spring blooms, summer berries, autumn campfires, winter spice.

Lasts a nice six hours in personal space, and another six on clothing, and can easily be worn any day of the year.
Affordable and accessible online–definitely one I’ll recommend.

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Peach Me

Sample spray and promo package, with bottle test strip and some candle tins to make my photo a little less boring.

or, Kirkland’s in liquid form.

Seriously, this stuff opens with nice juicy tropical peach dangling-from-the-mirror car air freshener, or maybe even the clip-onto-the-vent-because-my-dog-barfed-on-the-way-to-the-vet, you-can-buy-it-in-wax-melts-too kind.
The fruit fades to the skin over the next six hours into spice mix potpourri from the store at the mall that starts selling cinnamon scented pine cones in September.

If you can afford to splurge, Tom Ford’s Bitter Peach is the surreal masterpiece–but an awesome, long lasting succulent peach for a tenth the cost of Bel Rebel is Outremer Pêche. Or if you want that retro spice bottom, go with Dior’s Dolce Vita.

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Proper nasty punk Peaches, that you won’t hear on the Muzak speakers in Kirkland’s.

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Poudre de Parfum Scintillante

Lolita Lempicka powder atomizer globe in a snowbank with lavender spritzed snow.

Lolita Lempicka shimmering powder. I fully own up to buying this for the bottle.

There’s something dreamy and cutely sinister about it–the sweetness doesn’t come through as much as in a liquid formula, so the licorice and and almond cyanide are really carried in the musk.

Leans unisex in a sleepy morning skull-print pajama bottoms way.

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Alabama 3 (or A3 in the U.S. because copyright shenanigans) came on everyone’s radar with the theme song to the Sopranos. They’ve got a crazy acid house country blues sound that I love–here’s one of my favorites.

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Crimson Rocks

Amouage spray sample and red card, photo-bombed by a Siamese cat with no manners.

Oooh, this is heavenly.
Cinnamon and cedar and so warm, like standing before a brazier of burning hardwood, and sweet–but not cuddly, the honey is spread with a sharp rose knife.

I get a lot of Youth Dew vibes–that rich spicy heat–but Crimson Rocks is wilder, more elemental.
The lack of amber or balsamics on the bottom give an amazing desert mirage feel, elusive and light, like dusty spice in evening sun–

Lasts all night, growing sweeter and softer, just a breath on the skin left in the morning.

The guy said “You should get that,” and I might, when the price of eggs becomes reasonable again.

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I do love Joan Jett, but daaamn this is good.

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Starfruit & White Flowers

Mini 4711 flask with bright yellow and gold accented label, on a dish with starfruit.

Starfruit & White Flowers is a lovely fruity floral, with crystalline green peachy-citrus notes, their sweetness carried deeper by the gardenia-neroli mashup. Pretty and linear, projects across the room for 10 minutes, then settles to the skin over the next half hour.

I’ve enjoyed most of the 4711 Acqua Colonia offerings, but this one is rather special–delicate, refreshing and cheerful, and even a bit sexy in a see-through summer evening sundress way–
–but there’s also a crisp sugary vibe that works for daytimes in winter, too.

Very sniffy and maybe a little addictive.

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Just in case you haven’t heard this one–

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Casablanca

St. Clair bottle with dark amber eau, and hosta flowers because my tuberoses haven’t put out.

White flowers hit with a bang, loads of orange blossom, jasmine and tuberose too, but they’re wild and searching rather than lusty–almost as if escaping their space instead of beckoning one toward it–then they ease back to reveal some fruity citrus for a few hours. There’s nice benzoin on the bottom with some shadowy musk, like watchful guardian cats.

One to immerse in for a day, scent a bath, fill a room–
I’m curious what it does on warm days.

Edit – 6/28/23

In summer weather this has an indolent vibe–the florals less wistful, the animalics more prowling, the labdanum a little more smoky–definitely one for nights, still hovering a soft handspan off the skin at dawn.

I might like it even more than Gardener’s Glove.

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Malika Zarra is a jazz artist from Morocco. This song is my mood today, but check out her album Berber Taxi, too.

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Junk

Small glass pot of purple solid perfume with black lid.

Oh, Junk, how I love you–one part Tiger Balm, one part black currant cough drops–you heal my soul with comforting ’70s vibes of beaded doorway curtains and rusty VW micro-buses, JOB rolling papers and Aquarian tarot decks.

The solid is much preferable to the spray, so it can be rubbed into the skin like a curative salve. Apply every four hours or as needed.

My little pot expires next year. I cannot wait until someone asks me what I’m wearing, so I can nonchalantly say, “Just some old Junk I had.”

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Rose Incense

Sample spray and promo card, with desiccated roses and incense in a green ceramic holder.

Amouage’s take on Citizen Kane opens with sharp resins with melancholy undertones, then shifts to burning dried rosebuds (see what they did there?) and more aged frankincense.

Sadly, these heart notes leave one wanting more–the myrrh plot twist is so well known that there’s no surprise of cleverness to the sandalwood at the end–and the fleeting sweetness of vanilla at the bottom gives only the sense that love was never found.

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“The Union Forever” is The White Stripes’ take on the same movie, but “The Same Boy You’ve Always Known” is my favorite song on that album at the moment. Here’s a live version-